Where the French go on holiday: three destinations popular for natives en vacances

Stylist’s three French experts detail their go-to Gallic getaways for fashion, food and culture

The Stylish City Weekender: Bordeaux

Laetitia Wajnapel, photographer, fashion and lifestyle blogger and founder of mademoisellerobot.com, on the charms of Bordeaux (pictured above) – every stylish Parisian’s favourite city break

Bordeaux is a small city with big city ambitions, which means you have the best of both worlds. It’s an easy three-hour train ride from Paris, but feels a world away.

When in Bordeaux, I mostly treat myself to a lot of mooching around flea markets and vintage stores, my favourite being Backstage Vintage Store (backstagevintagestore.com) that stocks a really great curated selection of vintage, designer vintage and also second-hand contemporary clothing. Then, on balmy summer nights, I’ll hop on a V3 public city bike (Bordeaux has been named the fourth most bike-friendly city in the world) for a ride along the Garonne River on the Quai des Chartrons, up to the outlet stores and boutiques at Quai des Marques.

Aside from the shopping, this is my favourite spot to enjoy an unobstructed view of the Garonne with a glass of wine in my hand. Ride back into the city at dusk and take in the majestic Haussmann-inspired facades of Bordeaux’s grand mansion houses, then head to La Cagette (lacagette.com) for an ever-changing menu of fresh local produce. Follow it up with another drink al fresco at quirky Café Utopia (cafe.utopia.free.fr) and now you’ll really feel like a local.

In the morning, skip breakfast at your hotel and enjoy a healthy Bordeaux brunch at Plume Small Kitchen (plume.coffee) where for under £12, you’ll dine like a queen.

Stay: The Grand Hotel de Bordeaux (doubles from £200; ghbordeaux.com) is grand in every way, from the classically decorated rooms by Jacques Garcia to the impeccable service at their rooftop bar, Night Beach. And a Nuxe spa treatment in the striking decor of the hotel’s spa, Les Bains de Léa, is the perfect way to wind up your weekend.

The Gastronomic Getaway: Champagne

Top food instagrammer, founder of lostincheeseland.com and author of the upcoming The New Paris, Lindsey Tramuta, on the unsung delights of the Champagne region

Think the region of Champagne is nothing but bubbles and bling? While champagne visits are the abiding attraction for international visitors, the French make a beeline for the region’s array of cultural and gastronomic gifts.

Reims, the largest city, boasts the country’s most Michelin-starred restaurants, such as double-starred Le Parc Les Crayères (lescrayeres.com) and triple-starred L’Assiette Champenoise (assiettechampenoise.com). At the more accessible end, Halles du Boulingrin is an impressive art deco covered market where you can pick up local specialities like Chaource cheese, jambon de Reims, and rose biscuits. Nearby, a divine selection of pastries and pralines from Pascal Caffet’s namesake patisserie (he’s earned the covetable accolade of Meilleur Ouvrier de France, celebrating the nation’s finest artisans) await.

A 45-minute drive from Reims, in the heart of the Côte des Blancs, is the hilltop village of Avize, where three Michelin-starred chef Anne-Sophie Pic’s former protégé Stéphane Rossillon cooks market-driven dishes that rotate daily at Les Avisés (selosse-lesavises.com), a charming restaurant with rooms.

Come December, thousands of French gourmands descend on Épernay (a 40-minute drive south from Reims) for the annual Habits des Saveurs food festival, where Champagne’s leading chefs join forces with a champagne house or producer for an unforgettable pairing of gastronomic bites and top cuvées. No matter where you land among the region’s 34,000 hectares of vineyards, there are choice tables and markets waiting to be discovered in Champagne.

Stay: For a splurge, stay in the sumptuous five-star chateau retreat Domaine Les Crayères in Reims (lescrayeres.com; doubles from £380). It’s the best spot in the region to eat, drink and sleep the Champagne lifestyle – the wine list features more than 600 champagne labels alone. Santé to that!

Hip Marseille is known as ‘the Berlin of France’

The Inspirational Creative Escape: Marseille

Located between the Alps and the Mediterranean, you’d have to make a lot of effort not to find Marseille inspiring, as artists and writers have done for centuries. There are many reasons I love Marseille, not least the 2,858 hours of sunshine a year, which have earned the country’s second-largest city the label ‘sun capital of France’.

Some call it the Berlin of France, but Marseille is more than a hipster enclave; a wonderfully unpredictable, vibrant, colourful, versatile and exciting destination, it’s the country’s oldest city and is brimming with art galleries, historical buildings and beautiful public parks.

Quirky B&B Pension Edelweiss has a French new-wave feel

Cours Julien is the favourite neighbourhood of the ‘bobos’ (aka ‘bourgeois-bohèmes’, French for ‘hipster’). This is where I’ve spent happy weekends discovering cafés and restaurants like La Cantinetta (restaurantlacantinetta.fr), with its beautiful outside terrace dotted with plants and flowers, plus design stores, galleries, bookshops and markets – the square is filled with an antique book market at the weekends. Studio Fotokino (fotokino.org/Le-Studio), a short stroll away, is a lovely gallery that also sells prints and books from local illustrators and graphic artists.

Seafood lovers from all over the country come to Marseille for bouillabaisse (typical fish stew) at the Vieux Port. And nobody leaves the city without bringing home a little cube of traditional hard soap known as ‘Savon de Marseille’, so that the scent can bring you back to the city, even after you leave.

Stay: Pension Edelweiss (doubles from £65; pension-edelweiss.fr) is a stylish, quirky B&B designed and run by local Véronique, who’ll give you great local tips the guidebooks won’t tell you about. With vintage furniture and retro lighting, this oozes Mediterranean style.